Thursday, February 01, 2007

Thursday 02/01 A.M. Quickie:SB XLI Can't Arrive Fast Enough

Super Bowl XLI Ramp-Up: Cripes, is it here yet? I really don't have much to say. All the coverage has been recycled quotes from Media Day. Yawn. And having just come from two days in Chicago, I'm a little OD'ed on the SB.

The big post is tomorrow, when I/we make our picks. So start preparing now. My big dilemma: Do I stick with my well-publicized (uh, self-publicized) Colts over Bears pick from the PRESEASON? Or has my time in Chicago -- and perhaps my legacy of serious Bears fandom from age 0-18 -- affected my judgment? Come back tomorrow.

You know what we haven't talked about yet? The ads. There's the K-Fed ad (which doesn't deserve our attention), but which ads have you heard about or seen that you think will score big? Hell, most of them are already available on YouTube. A huge part of the SB XLI live-blog on this blog will be about the ads.

UPDATE: There IS a big story: Super Bowl Week, 15-minutes-of-fame, hot-for-Web-oddity Bears fan Sarah Spain rejected Matt Ufford (of WithLeather and KissingSuzyKolber) as the guy to give her extra Super Bowl ticket to. This was lame. And wrong. You can't bite the hand that feeds you freaking Super Bowl tickets. Check out WL for Matt's epic three-part tale of rejection.

NFL Coaching: Given that the Cowboys haven't picked a head coach yet, I'm going to predict that the next coach of the team will be... Ron Rivera.

(Why doesn't the NFL let assistant coaches whose teams are in the Super Bowl do job interviews? Is it really THAT disruptive?)

College Hoops Parity Watch: Wisconsin as No. 2? Not for long: The Badgers (one of my preseason Final Four teams) lost at Indiana. The Gators and Heels rolled on – I think they're on a collision course for the NCAA title game.

Speaking of Oden, if the Celtics DO get the first overall pick in the NBA Draft, they might want to consider picking Kevin Durant over Greg Oden. Did you see Durant's game last night? 30-some points, 20-some rebounds. Yeesh. He's a monster.

Nick Saban is a complete jackass.

Barry Bonds' various contract snafus are even more boring than you think they are.

Today's Must-Read: The always-brilliant Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop has this amazing post that continues to enlighten we plebian NBA fans about the real inner workings of the system. Or is that "Wes-tem?" Here's the link.

Carmelo-vs-Shanoff MySpace Challenge: In the latest update (as of 11:38 a.m. on Thursday), I have reached 270 friends. Carmelo has 31,145. Based on my "1 Percent" goal, I need to reach 312 friends. Only 42 behind! The big question: When will Melo request to be my friend?

Not about sports, but perhaps of interest to you: Do you like politics? Do you run a politics blog or simply like to talk about politics? Do you appreciate the reference if I compliment you for being "clean?" Dan Lewis, one of the brains behind ArmchairGM.com, wants to talk with you about a potential opportunity. Email him at dan[dot]lewis[at]gmail[dot]com.

Maybe I am fucking insane, but my opinion of K-Fed is changing. I actually like the ad, and kind of find him likable. Maybe seeing that footage of him receiving the breakup text from Britney softened my hatred. If you had the chance to bang Britney for a couple years then walk away a millionaire, wouldn't you?

And agreed, coaches should be allowed to interview even during the playoffs. It's only a problem because the media says so, not because it actually is one.

I will argue that the best run of our generation is Justin Timberlake. He was with Brittany at the absolute peak of her fame, then with Cameron Diaz. Some would argue even with Janet Jackson. Now he is "alledgedly" with Scarlet Johannson as she rises to prominence. His acting skills are actually pretty good (see SNL), and if you haven't seen D*ck in a Box yet, check it out soon.

Second to Justin is K-Fed. He was with Brittany through the fall (perhaps causing it), but at least he started at the top. He got millions of dollars and access to things he could never touch without her. Now he's on WWE, released an album (albeit a crappy one), and is in a Superbowl commercial. His ability to poke fun at himself makes him almost likeable. I think, overall, this guy went from no-name back-up dancer to one of the 10 most google'ed (is that a verb) guys in America. That qualifies him as successful in my book.

Let's see....3 titles and then 20 years later the Celtics are the laughingstock of the league. I suppose I'm in trouble down the road with the Pats, except they were the laughingstock of the league 20 years ago, so it's more like a reversal, than it would be an omen.

Or an Oden....Gotta go BIG if they get the pick. How many power forwards led their teams to titles?

Who else remembers, and I think it was XX on NBC, where they ran the screen blank for a minute, save for a timer, to give everyone a chance to make a bathroom run during the pre-game show?

Jason: Saban said something that can be considered a slur towards people in the Bayou area. I believe the word was "coonass" and people freaked out. He was actually quoting another friend and it was off the record so I think we're making way to big of a deal about this. I didn't even know about it until Saban issued an apology for it.

Dan: barely a mention that MLB rejected the Bonds contract? I know eventually it probably will get approved, but that's kinda big news.

As for the SB Ads: who cares? We can talk about that after the game. The game is hyped enough. THere's NO reason to hype the damn commercials too.

The Badgers lost to a pretty good Indiana team. Not knock on them too much. Indiana's good and Sampson is doing some good things.

I'm in Houston, where we have a lot of Cajuns. My former manager, a Cajun, called himself a "coonass" - the big deal they're bashing Saban over - in meetings all the time. Kinda like some other famous slang, a Cajun calling another a coonass is a term of endearment - so says my co-worker, another Cajun - someone outside calling him one, it's more of an issue.

Listened to the Saban thing, didn't come off as a big deal to me. He used a Louisiana phrase which doesn't refer to ethnicity to refer to a Lousiana person of unkown ethnicity in front of Alabama people of unk....alright yeah they were probably all white good ol' boys.

I intentionally stay away from the superbowl ads prior to the game. That way i can be pleasantly surprised. Although lately none of them are any good. But i do predict the godaddy.com girl to be back again.

Scott Baio has the greatest career run of all-time...Pam Anderson, Heather Locklear, Brooke Shields, Denise Richards, Nicole Eggert, Nicolette SHeridan, and Erika Eleniak. Not to mention numerous playmates while hanging out with Hef in the 80s. Definitely a legend that K-fed and Timberlake will have trouble catching.

"Why doesn't the NFL let assistant coaches whose teams are in the Super Bowl do job interviews? Is it really THAT disruptive?"

In reality, probably not. But what if an assistant did interview during Super Bowl Week(s) and then their team lost the Super Bowl? Think there wouldn't be a segment on PTI about whether that was a distraction?

In past years I believe the NFL let Assistants Interview for Jobs during that First week between the Championship games and the Super Bowl. I guess they changed that but I know that is When Romeo Interviewed for the Cleveland job when he got it.

Wisconsin was bound to lose eventually. They don't have the players to "out-talent" teams every night. I still think they are a threat in the tournament, though I probably just jinxed them to a 2nd round loss. :(

Eddy Curry isn't doing to bad, second best center in the East since Shaq hasn't played. Its him and 18 shoot first guards though which causes some problems. They could build around Crawford, Lee, Frye, and Curry. Just have to get rid of Starbury, Franchise, Jeffries, Robinson (hate him), Q, Jerome James. That is a lot of players and even more $$$. Not gonna happen even if they had a great GM.

If you're saying that Durant can't cut it in the NBA, you're insane. That dude has so much game it's silly.

Now if you're saying Noah might not make a good pro, I think you could be onto something. Considering he has no range whatsoever, and isn't big enough to shove around most NBA centers in the low post, I just see him having some problems in the NBA.

I'm sure Noah and Durant will be ok. But neither one is so unique physically. Oden is. Say what you will about T-Mac or KG type players..as Durant is...but every team in the NBA would rather get the next Shaq/Russell dominant center.

Crennel stayed until after the SB. It was Weis who agreed to leave before the SB and even did ND recruiting during SB week.

I think it would be a huge distraction for a coach to interview while their team is still playing -- either regular season or playoffs. "Um, I'm sorry Peyton, I can't review film with you and make a game plan because I'll be in Dallas for 2 days trying to impress Jerry".

I think it would be ok for all teams to wait until after the SB to hire coaches, but no team wants to enter that critical "pre-draft strategy, watch the Senior Bowl hype" without a coach in place.

Joni loves Chachi. That should be to 10. But did you ever look at Scott Baio and think "alright, he's kinda cool."

Has anyone else heard this story about the NFL banning a church in Indianapolis from showing the game using a projector and having a party for it? This is absolutely infuriating to me. I don't know how to create those links that you guys use so here's the URL:

The NFL just keeps doing more and more things to piss me off. First, it's the NFL Network and it's refusal to let cable companies broadcast it. Now it's this. If the NFL keeps this up, thye are going to start losing fans.

Rafael-Kevin Durant will put on 20 pounds of muscle once he reaches the NBA. He has handle (better than KG), he has range (better than KG), he can play D (better than T-Mac), he can pass (better than KG or T-Mac), and he can rebound (better than T-Mac).

I don't know about you, but sounds to me like he's gonna be one hell of an NBA player.

Nick Saban:If you havn't actually heard the quote, you need to. He uses it in an offhand manner, in an off the record conversation, without saying he would never use such a term.I've heard media people all day say the same thing. If you make 4 million dollars a year you can't talk like that. Don't make jokes that have racial slurs in them. If it had been acceptable it would've been on the record. He uses it off-hand like it's a word in his vocabulary.It's offensive, it's wrong, and it's biggoted.

Kevin Durant will put on 20 pounds of muscle once he reaches the NBA He has handle (better than KG), he has range (better than KG), he can play D (better than T-Mac), he can pass (better than KG or T-Mac), and he can rebound (better than T-Mac).

20 pounds and he'd still be smaller than Oden.

And Durant has handle..range..defensive skill..passing skill..and rebounding skill..against college players. Durant is still more 'potential' than actuality.

The Saban story is a non-story. "Coon-ass" is not a racial slur. It doesn't refer to Cajuns or Creoles or Black people or anything like that. It has the word "coon" in it, which is a racial slur. However, that's not what he said. "Coon-ass" is just a coloquialism for a red-neck or a hick or something like that. The only people who get called "coon-ass" down south are white guys. Trust me, there are plenty of LSU fans who fit the description. Should he have said it? No. Should the reporter who he told he was off the record with ever get another interview with anyone? No (I'm sure we won't hear anything about that). Is it that big of a deal? No. Shame it isn't even a funny joke.

After seeing Gilbert Arenas in 2 games against the Raptors I have to say I am very unimpressed. He had a bad 1st game, although the stats don't show it, shooting a terrible percentage and playing terrible D in a loss. Then he said he was tired 'cuz he just had his birthday party.

He promised revenge, but last nights game was pretty much the same as the first. He took bad shots all game, and then at the end down 20 he started Dwayne-Wading (defined as jumping into defenders on your way to the basket to draw a foul) and wound out with decent stats.

He averaged 30 a game, but so did the Raptor PG's he was assigned to cover. Compared to the games I've seen with Dirk, Nash or Bryant, Arenas didn't even compare.

Dan, I've probably spent more time reading up on the Biden-Obama-Hillary-Edwards thing over the past 24 hours than I have on sports-related stuff. What is your buddy trying to put together? I'm not going to email him and be like, "Uh, yo, I was told to email you."

Am I the only one who fines the NFL banning a church from having a Super Bowl party an atrocity? I just want to know if anyone else has heard this story and finds it to be bullshit. It's on SI.com and CNN.com. Let me know what you guys think.

Is it an atrocity because it's a church. What if it was an AA sponsered party, would it be an atrocity then? Should the NFL make exceptions for Churchs? How about Temples and Masques? Scientology meeting places? I'm confusing myself, what's the problem with what the NFL is doing?

The problem is it's a churhc. And yes, if a synagogue or temple or mosque or anyone wants to do it, they should be able to. More than likely the commercials will still be seen, which means that the advertisers will still get their sales. I think the NFL is being unreasonable here. Heck, if an AA meeting wants to do it, go right ahead. DOn't charge admission fees, and you'll be fine.

It's not the advertisers, it's the network......from cnn.com "The network economics are based on television ratings and at-home viewing. Out-of-home viewing is not measured by Nielsen." So for next years Super Bowl the ad rates will be based on the Nielsen number, if the NFL lets everybody show the game in mass viewing then the rating will go down and they won't be able to recoup (spelling) what they paid for the rights to air the game.

A co-worker is going to a friends house to watch the superbowl. That friend is throwing a "superbowl commercial party". Everyone but my co-worker that is attending this abomination is going there with the intent to watch the commercials and be annoyed by the football game that interrupts them. We live in fucking INDIANAPOLIS and these morons only care about the ads. I can't fathom people's fascination with the fucking superbowl commercials. I find nothing more annoying then the day after superbowl talk of "did you see the XXXX commercial?". It seems patently absurd that our society obsesses over a tool designed to get us to spend our hard earned money with gimmicky slogans and bullshit fluff. Oh well.. I'm gonna jump off this soapbox before I really go off about previews for commercials.. LOL.

With all that said.. those old Reebok commercials with that office linebacker or some shit like that were awesome from about 4 years ago. "Game time is pain time" Classic.

daddy rosee: Do you really think that the NFL is going to lose money on the Super Bowl anytime soon? We;re talking about the Super Bowl.

First of all, ticket prices--astronomical.

Secondly-ad prices I believe I heard $2.7 million for a 30 second spot this year. Those numbers won't go down.

It's the Super Bowl. Anyone that follows football is going to watch and many, many people that DON'T follow football are going to watch. They watch for the commercials. To think the the NFL is going to lose money in the Super Bowl because a church or temple or mosque or whatever has a party and those aren't considered on the Nielson ratings is just stupidity. Use your head dumbass.

Hi Dan -- I love the blog, but never read your ESPN column. How's that for going against the trend? I just requested to be a friend using my business profile (Eight at Eight). Here's to helping you catch Melo!

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.